venerdì 2 novembre 2012

Meet my husband/20: Jonathon Keats and Epigenetic Cloning

The Epigenetic Cloning project has had two different incarnations so far. The first one at the AC Institute in New York, where it appeared under the name of Cloning Celebrity.

You can find the press release on Bruce Sterling's Beyond the BeyondWired blog, where he observes:

"We did not make this guy up. He exists independently of our blog coverage."

"Epigenetics is the science of environmental effects on genes," explains Jesse Emspak in his article for Discovery News. "Identical
twins are clones, for instance, but if one becomes a rock star and
parties like Keith Richards and the other becomes a reclusive Zen monk,
they'll look different after a few decades. That's because a person's
genes express in different ways, depending on what chemicals the body is
exposed to. (...) Keats plans to culture yeast and expose it to the same chemicals the
corresponding famous person is exposed to. In the case of Michael Phelps
or Barack Obama, it's the chemicals associated with their diets. 'We
know pretty well what the White House diet is,' he said. 'Or with
Michael Phelps, he takes in lots of carbs.'"

As Scott Thill writes for Wired, "Cloning as we know it is mostly based upon inherited genes, but epigenetics
is more concerned with how environment encourages gene expression. What
we eat, breathe and the toxins we’re exposed to determine who we
become. So, extrapolating backwards, Keats posits that by culturing
yeast and exposing it to Obama and Gaga’s 'biochemical intake' it is
theoretically possible to make their epigenetic clones. (...) And because brewer’s yeast is involved, it’s now theoretically possible to create a piece of toast with Jesus in it.

In an interview in The Toronto Star, Mr. Keats explains how he could access information about these famous people's diets: "'The thing about celebrities is that most of them are obsessed with
food and dieting. Michael Phelps, for example, has one of the most
documented diets on the planet.' Phelps’s 500-millilitre flask will be filled with daily doses of the
chemical equivalent of a dozen eggs, two pounds of pasta and 'much more
chlorine than you or I are exposed to,' Keats said.

For the American president, a day’s nutrients will vary. The White
House’s chef has reported a diet of fish and chicken, brown rice, green
beans and other healthy fare, but on the campaign trail Obama will down
more hotdogs and chili."

If you wish to hear Mr. Keats explain his project on the radio, here he is, on WNPR.

After New York City, the epigenetic project moved to San Francisco, where Mr. Keats opened The Epigenetic Cloning Agency at Modernism Gallery.

This time, as Monya Baker explains on Nature.com, the epigenetically cloned celebrities were the likes of George Washington, Queen Elizabeth I, Napoleon Bonaparte, Madame de Pompadour, and Jesus Christ.

Or even , as you can read on the piece written by Gretchen Schrafft forThe Rumpus, Keats himself. "The Keats Complex costs $35 a bottle, and Mr. Keats recommends taking
it with alcohol—'preferably whiskey.' (...)Keats
has clearly taken pains to research the diets of Napoleon and Elizabeth
I (Bonaparte ate a whole chicken or rooster almost every single day,
and Her Royal Highness was all about refined sugar). Yet the veil drawn
by history makes many other details hazy. Nowhere is this more apparent
than in the case of Jesus, whose cloning ingredients include thiamine
and Omega 3s (loaves and fishes), vitamin D (the high levels of sunlight
in his part of the world), acetic acid (present in the fig tree he once
cursed for not bearing fruit), iron (the nails that affixed him to the
cross), and placebo (his tremendous capacity for faith)."

The show has been covered by the local newspapers, like the SF Chronicle, where Carolyne Zinko writes: "Calling himself both a 'dispensing epigeneticist' and a 'quack,' [Mr. Keats] said, in deadpan style, 'There are no guarantees and a lot of paperwork
to sign. If you die, it's not my fault.'"

Another nice article is the one written by Pamela Feinsilber for the SF Examiner. "The thing about Jonathon’s work is that no matter how entertaining the
concept, it’s always thoroughly researched and seriously intended," she writes.

And Anna Pulley, for SF Weekly, writes: "This isn't the first time Keats, an experimental philosopher and artist,
has turned art and science on its head. He opened a photosynthetic
restaurant for plants, exhibited extraterrestrial abstract art, and
presented the nation's first Ouija voting booth in Berkeley, so it's not
surprising that he's attempting to genetically engineer God. Still:
What?"